Choices Made For Life
by mikeslikb
Summary: [Original Story] Part of a trilogy... A young woman is forced into marriage of a lord and tries to escape but has a little extra baggage Demons, Spirits, Humans all in this!


01/29/06

**Choices Made For Life**

A/N: This is an original story that I started to write. It is part of a **trilogy** and so it will be continued after the story ends. Reviews are well appreciated and constructive criticism is also well appreciated. Thanks!

The woman frantically runs. She runs, trying to stop herself from stopping and looking back at what may or may not be chasing her.

She passes through the dark, dead trees only lit by the light of the moon shining down on the forest as if a spotlight on this young runaway. As she runs, her bare feet collect the wet leaves on the muddy ground. Her lungs begin to feel cold and tight as she is out of breath.

She stops, leaning on a tree, grabbing her large belly and trying to calm herself as well as the child within her. She shivers with every deep breath she takes. Her cheeks are a rose red on her pale, cold face. Her big, blue eyes look around in her paranoia.

She quiets her soundly breathing so to hear her surroundings. Who is she listening for? She holds her breaths and then releases them slowly through her mouth. She can barely see through the black forest. She hears nothing and sees almost nothing in the darkness. She looks up. Through the dead tree branches she can see the moon, shining brightly with stars all around it like a castle surrounded by the houses of it's manor.

"Lord Otomo! Lord Otomo!" a guard comes yelling to his superior, knocking on the bedroom door many times.

The lord stands on the balcony of his room. He looks out on the cold night. He hears his title called and the knocking on his door. He turns his head, flipping his long, silvery hair around. He then turns the rest of his body, quickly flipping his long, dragging, silk, blood red robe with him. He walks quickly off of his balcony and through the doors to his candle lit room. His robe drags across the red carpets until it stops at the double doors. The lord opens both doors, revealing himself to the guard.

"Have you found her?" the lord asks.

The guards gulps in nervousness, "No, my lord. We have not found her yet."

The lord rolls his eyes and turns quickly away from the guard in disappointment. He walks over to a table filled with drinks.

The guard slowly walks into the room and stands by the opened doors.

The lord pours himself a drink of an alcohol beverage sitting in a glass vase on the table.

"Release the demons, then!" he said after taking a long sip of his drink and slamming the wooden cup on the table.

"Uh, uh... but my lord..." he was interrupted.

"Do as I say and ask no questions!" the lord yelled, turning around. "You will find her no matter what measures you must take!"

The frightened guard took a step back. "My lord, of course I will comply with you demands, but the demons are dangerous to release out in the open! How do we know they'll return?" the guard asked.

The lord smirked, evilly grinning at his idea. He turned around and walked to the doors which led to the balcony. He looked out. "Go in first, take their children... tell them that if they choose not to return after finding the lordess, than we will chop their offspring up and serve them to the females. I'm sure that will give them enough reason to come back." he said. "Don't you?" the lord asked, turning around again.

"Uh, oh, yes my lord." the guard said before he bowed and left the room, closing both doors behind him.

The Lord Otomo walked out onto his balcony and up to the banister. He looked off. "They'll experience their children taken from them if they don't **find mine!**" he slammed his fist on the surface of the balcony.

She sits on muddy ground, right on the root of the bark of the tree. She continues to try and relax as she lays there, against the tree, calming herself. She leaves her dirty hands, resting on her large stomach. "Please, the spirits of purity and strength... give me some of that strength to get home and to be a mother to my daughter. Please... I beg you. My husband needs me. The man I love! Please!" she began yelling.

Suddenly, as she looked up in the sky, she heard a crackle within the dark woods. She stopped yelling and quickly looked, quieting her breaths again. With her right arm, she pushed her body away from the tree and stood up on her feet. She looked in the direction that she heard the noise and then turned opposite of it and began to run again.

As she ran, she began to hear the sounds of howls. She knew exactly what they were and who they were coming from. "Oh... no!" she yelled, running as fast as she could. The howling got louder and louder as she could soon hear the creature moving behind her. She didn't look back, she knew she couldn't. "No!" she yelled again before she lost her balance and tripped into the mud. She grabbed her stomach and then began to crawl away on her knees. She was breathing heavier than ever.

She was stopped when something jumped in front of her. The howling stopped. She was staring at a pair of feet. The feet had some brown fur on the shin. She knew that this was a wolf demon, here for her.

"You're not going anywhere!" the demon yelled loudly.

She looked up at him. She shook. "Please! Isamu! Let me go! Please help me get home to my family!"

"Why should I help you?" the wolf demon, Isamu asked.

"Help me and my family, just as I once helped you and your family!" she said, pushing up onto her knees.

"Helped me? Helped my family?" he angrily questioned her. "You gave us up! You hid us in your home and told the Lord Otomo's men where to find us!"

"No! I swear! They threatened to kill my family! I had no choice!" she pleaded.

"You had a choice, _Lordess _Reain! You had a choice and you chose to be selfish! Now me, my family and ever other wolf demon have to live in cages. And that I blame you for!" the wolf demon yelled, picking the young woman up by her arms. "Now I shall kill you!"

"No! Please!" she begged.

"Put her down, Isamu!" a voice yelled out in the distance.

Isamu looked behind Reain's shoulder and saw there another wolf demon, much like himself in appearance. "Kino..."

The other wolf demon, named Kino came walking toward Isamu where he held Reain. "Our orders were not to kill her. They were to return her to the castle, safe and unharmed!"

"I don't care! She's the reason why we have to obey orders for the rest of our lives!" Isamu declared, looking her straight in the eyes, evilly.

"Do you care about you children?" Kino snapped.

Isamu looked over at him again. He said nothing.

"You kill her, you kill your children!"

Isamu said nothing, just stared at the scared, crying Reain. He looked at her with all the hate he could feel within himself.

"Your children need their father. Think about your son... he was just born two weeks ago! He needs you, Isamu!" Kino reminded him. "You know what the lord will do to them if you kill her. Let me not have to remind you of that."

Isamu continued to stare at her. He remembered the day he was captured. He remembered the entire experience.

"Come, Isamu... let's bring her back to the lord. Let her be safe and so will your children and your mate. The woman you love."

Isamu was breathing heavier in his anger. He shook his head and yelled loudly, "I'd rather my children dead than to have to live in a cage for the rest of their lives!" he said, lifting Reain high and pulling back one of his arms, ready to claw the young lordess.

"Isamu, no!" Kino yelled, running and jumping at him. He grabbed Isamu's arm and pulled him down to the ground, causing him to drop Reain.

She fell to the ground and rolled over in the mud. "Ah..." she cried, holding her stomach.

"Kino, get off of me!" Isamu yelled.

"No! I will not let you kill her! You may not mind your children being killed but I won't let it happen to my son!" Kino exclaimed.

"You'd rather have your son caged?" Isamu asked, struggling to get Kino off of him.

"If she dies all the children die! Not just your's! I won't let you kill my son too!" Kino said before Isamu swung him over and into a tree.

"Ah!" Kino yelled as his body slammed into the dead tree, knocking it over.

Isamu crawled over to Reain who crawled to another tree.

"No!" she screamed as he grabbed her ankle, pulling her toward him.

Isamu roared as he pulled his arm back and high, showing his claws to Reain in the moon.

"No!" she cried before covering her eyes.

Isamu pulled his arm down to her when Kino jumped on him again, knocking him over. Kino held Isamu down but Isamu over powered him and the rolled over. Isamu scratched Kino's chest, cutting his shirt open and leaving four wounds across his upper torso. "Ah!" Kino yelled in great pain.

"You traitor!" Isamu yelled loudly.

Kino pulled his arm loose and dug his claws deep into the back of Isamu's head. Isamu head began to pour blood as soon as Kino pulled his claws out. Isamu's eyes grew big in shock. He stared Kino in the eyes and then dropped on top of him; dead.

Reain stared at the scene in shock and fright.

Kino rolled Isamu off of him and looked at the dead wolf demon. He breathed deeply, staring at what he had just done.

Reain stood up and weakly walked over to him. "Kino... you just killed him... you just killed your brother." she said.

Kino looked coldly at her. "I had to. If you die, the lord will kill all of the children. I won't let that be the fate for my son."

"Thank you, Kino... for saving my life." she said. "I have to ask you to help me again,"

Kino looked at her.

"Please... help me get home to my family. They need me!" she cried.

Kino shook his head. "No, Reain. If I don't return with you than my son will be killed and fed to my wife. He'll do the same to Isamu's children. I have to go back and plea for the lives of my brother's children."

"Please, Kino! I beg you!" she said, grabbing at his shirt and pulling toward her.

He pushed her hands away. "Reain... you had to give us up when the lord threatened the lives of your family. Now the positions have changed. Now I must give you up for the lives of my family. You said you had no choice to Isamu... well, now I have not one either."

Reain began to cry again. "Please, Kino! He raped me... he stole and he impregnated me with this child!"

"I'm taking you back!"


End file.
